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Tomlin promotes assistant, adds another

Coach Mike Tomlin continues to work on filling out his new staff with the Steelers, promoting Ray Horton to secondary coach and hiring a special teams coach.

Horton, according to a Steelers source, will coach the secondary by himself. He was the assistant secondary coach the past three seasons to Darren Perry, who resigned his position after Tomlin was named to succeed Bill Cowher.

Pittsburgh native Bob Ligashesky, 44, will become the Steelers' new special teams coach, according to a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Ligashesky, a 1985 IUP graduate, was the Rams' special teams coach the past two seasons. He also was Pitt's tight ends coach and special teams coordinator from 2000-03. He played linebacker at IUP.

Ligashesky coached at Kent State, Bowling Green and one year as assistant special teams coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2004. He was a graduate assistant coach at Wake Forest and Arizona State.

According to a Steelers source, the team will hire an assistant special teams coach as well. Kevin Spencer, who coached the Steelers special teams from 2002 through last season, was permitted to join Ken Whisenhunt's new staff with the Arizona Cardinals.

Horton, 46, coached with the Redskins, Bengals and Lions in the NFL before joining the Steelers in 2004. He played cornerback for the Bengals from 1983-88 and finished his career with the Dallas Cowboys from 1989-92.

Coaching Highlights:
Ligashesky will enter his second season as the Rams’ special teams coach in 2006. Under Ligashesky, the Rams’ special teams unit in 2005 saw its first kickoff return for a touchdown since 2000, as Chris Johnson returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for the score on Oct. 9 against Seattle. 2005 also marked the third time since the Rams moved to St. Louis that the club had at least two blocked kicks in a season, as Drew Wahlroos blocked a punt vs. Jacksonville on Oct. 30 and Tyoka Jackson blocked a field goal vs. New Orleans on Oct. 23. Ligashesky’s unit also saw the Rams force and recover fumbles on special teams for the first time since 2000.
Ligashesky (pronounced lig-a-SHES-kee) joined the Rams in 2005 after serving as the assistant special teams coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2004, his first season in the NFL. Ligashesky helped the Jaguars’ special teams unit finish the 2004 season ranked sixth in the AFC (10th in the NFL) in punt return average with 9.6 yards per return, and third in the AFC (sixth in the NFL) in kickoff return average defense, allowing only 19.9 yards per opponent return. Jacksonville was also seventh in the AFC (10th in the NFL) in gross punting average with 42.8 yards per return, and sixth in the AFC (10th in the NFL) in net punting average allowed.
Ligashesky has 20 years of coaching experience, 19 collegiately coaching tight ends, linebackers, and special teams. He served as the tight ends coach and special teams coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh from 2000-03, after spending the previous nine seasons (1991-99) at Bowling Green, coaching linebackers and special teams. Ligashesky was promoted to assistant head coach prior to the 1999 season with the Falcons.
Prior to Bowling Green, he coached outside linebackers and worked with the special teams units at Kent State for two years (1989-90), and was a graduate assistant at Arizona State from 1986-88, working with the outside linebackers and defensive line. Ligashesky began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wake Forest in 1985. Ligashesky played defensive back at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from IUP in 1985 with a degree in exercise science. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, he is married to Shelley and resides in St. Louis, MO.

I wondered why we had 2 DB coaches last year as well; perhaps they knew he wasn't going to stay around long so they wanted someone to work with him to be able to take over? or perhaps it was because we had so many young players back there He did leave on his own accord this year so who knows...